Mum-Of-Five Jailed After Blaming Her Kids For Her Shoplifting Spree

A mum-of-five has been jailed for shoplifting. She blamed her latest offences on her boisterous children, claiming she needed to find money to repair the home they had wrecked.

Unemployed Kelly Fannin said she couldn't afford to pay the rent or repairs bills after her kids caused the damage.

But she was jailed for 16 weeks after Truro Magistrates Court heard she was a persistent shoplifter who had spent thousands of pounds on a life of luxury - including £4,500 on a boob job.

The mum, from Falmouth, Cornwall, had managed to escape jail three times in five years for a series of previous thefts.

She admitted a spate of shoplifting in Truro and Falmouth in Cornwall which netted her nearly £3,000 of goods.

Fannin became notorious in October 2010 when she boasted in the women's magazine, Closer, that she splurged much of her £29,000-a-year benefits on luxury items, running up £10,000 debts on credit cards.

"Some people might think I'm a scrounger but I don't think me or my children should miss out on nice things just because I have never worked," she told the magazine.

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I've wanted a boob job since I was a teen but it wasn't until I had the five kids that I could afford it with the extra benefits I get.

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"I really do want to have liposuction, a tummy tuck and Botox and the kids agree Mummy should have the best.

"All mums should be able to have cosmetic surgery. I don't care that it's at taxpayers' expense."

In the last five years the 34-year-old had been given two suspended jail terms and a curfew. Fannin appeared at Truro Magistrates Court where she admitted stealing shaver equipment and an electric toothbrush worth £640 from Boots in Truro and cosmetics worth £150 from the same store in Falmouth. She asked for four other offences including stealing perfume worth £1,200 to be taken into consideration.

The children, fathered by four different men and aged between four and 18, are now being looked after by another member of the wider family.

Her lawyer Jeremy Leaning told the court that she was struggling to make rent payments and pay money for repairs to the family home.

He argued before that her children would suffer if she was jailed but she was told that had been her "last chance".